Fisherman Reels In A ‘River Monster’ That Experts Are Struggling To Explain
Thalassaphobia is an intense and persistent fear of the sea.
And while phobias are generally perceived as being irrational, this is one makes sense.
Just think of all those slimy, squirming creatures hidden in the watery depths.
To make the terror even more poignant, to this day, so little is known about our planet’s
waters!
However, while the oceans are fear-inspiring enough, you don’t even have to go that far
to find the stuff of nightmares.
Sometimes, even a body of water as seemingly innocuous as a river can be host to a whole
world of monster-like creations.
In the summer of 2014, one fisherman learned this the hard way.
There are more than 8,000 rivers in Canada, so citizens are well-acquainted with all the
natural wonders they provide.
In the heart of British Columbia, however, lies a river — the Fraser River — that
is set apart for one slightly unsettling reason.
The Fraser River is infamous for being home to some of the largest sea creatures ever
discovered.
That’s right: huge, hulking things that could probably beat Liam Neeson in a fight,
if only they had legs.
We certainly wouldn’t want to swim there, and risk the chance of something slimy brushing
against a leg or nibbling a toe, but that doesn’t mean that plenty of people don’t
get enjoyment out of it.
Fraser is a highly popular fishing spot.
In fact, in 2011, Jeff Grimolfson, a lifelong fisherman, founded a group dedicated to providing
tours of the famous river.
Fittingly, he named it “River Monster Adventures.”
This group doesn’t just operate for fun, though.
It plays a crucial role in helping local conservancies sustain populations of sturgeon who call the
churning waters their home.
After catching the monumental fish, they tag them and send ’em back.
For obvious reasons, this site has attracted tourists from far and wide, and in 2012, a
British couple decided to travel there on a vacation.
Their names were Margaret and Michael Snell, and they had no idea what awaited them.
The lovebirds were relaxing on the boat, idly waiting for an unsuspecting fish to come swimming
along, when they felt their line being tugged by something with an extreme amount of force.
After an ensuing struggle, the couple’s catch emerged from the murky waters, and they
could hardly believe their eyes.
The huge fish was an astounding twelve feet long.
They’d broken a world record.
Two years later, the Fraser River would yet again produce something that startled visitors.
It was Father’s Day, and Paul Jarvis decided to take his father Ron on a special trip to
the famed fishing spot.
After hours of inactivity, the line suddenly jerked, and Paul struggled to get control
of whatever beast was on the other end of it.
“I’m a big guy but I couldn’t even hold the rod,” he exclaimed.
After all was said and done, they’d pulled in a truly massive find.
The sturgeon they caught weighed a formidable 900 pounds, the same as an average sized adult
male polar bear.
No wonder it was such a challenge!
Although these catches were no doubt impressive, Fraser River’s strangest secret by far had
yet to be found.
It lay in wait, lurking beneath the opaque surface, just daring someone to pull it in.
Enter Nick McCabe.
It was the summer of 2014, and the teenager had taken a job as a guide at River Monster
Adventures.
He had the whole summer ahead of him, and he was excited to get to work.
Things had been going smoothly; McCabe was a natural at the job.
One fateful day, he took the boat out with a couple of friends.
Unfortunately, things had been pretty slow and so far they hadn’t caught anything noteworthy.
The group of fishermen headed to one last spot for the day, reluctantly preparing to
go home empty handed.
Little did they know, they would soon encounter something extraordinary.
Suddenly, amidst the placid surface of the river, McCabe spotted something that was undeniably
huge.
He set his sights on it, and they began to trail it in the boat, breaths held in anticipation.
McCabe later recounted the first moment he knew he was in for something special: “The
fish jumped right out of the river and I said, ‘Well, that looks like a 10-footer, so strap
on, we’re going to be into at least a two-hour fight.’”
Ultimately, the intense struggle took even longer — a full two hours and fifteen minutes.
Whatever this was, it possessed ungodly strength, and the fight was exacerbated by McCabe’s
preference for short lines.
Soon, everything would start to make sense.
Finally, after hours of physical and mental endurance on the part of McCabe and his pals,
the group was able to reel in their monster of a catch.
What they saw when it emerged shocked them to their very cores.
This was no normal sturgeon: it looked more like a monster than a fish.
Its snout was elongated and strangely shaped, resembling none other than a pig snout.
They’d soon learn that this fish was in fact notorious.
McCabe was quickly informed that he’d caught a local legend, and he even had a name: Pig
Nose.
Pig Nose wasn’t born looking the way he did, though.
Tragedy had befallen the odd-looking sea creature.
That’s right, 40 years earlier something or someone had injured Pig Nose.
Luckily, the unusual animal was able to survive his wounds.
However, when they healed, he was permanently deformed, left looking more like a barnyard
animal than a river dweller.
Forty years ago?
That’s a long time!
However, it only represents half of Pig Nose’s long and storied existence, for the animal
is believed to be at least eighty years old.
And at ten feet and 650 pounds, he’s still growing.
Young but precocious Nick McCabe was the first fisherman to ever catch the elusive creature.
To celebrate the milestone, the two took an adoring picture together: man, and fish, no
longer foes but friends.
McCabe had thought that all the local buzz around Pig Nose’s historic catch was finally
starting to die down.
However, a year after the legendary incident, something incredibly strange happened.
While cruising the waters one hot summer day, McCabe spotted something…large lurking beneath
the depths.
An hour later, he’d done it again.
He’d caught Pig Nose.
After this huge coincidence, McCabe started to develop a feeling of special intimacy with
the gentle creature.
“He might not be the largest fish in the river, but it’s a very special fish for
us,” he said.
Of course, Fraser River doesn’t hold the world’s monopoly on strange and incredible
creatures of the deep.
In fact, pretty much wherever there’s water you can expect to find some brave soul searching
for a monster of their own.
Sometimes what they find is even stranger than anticipated…
Located in the provinces of Van and Bitlis, Lake Van is easily the largest body of water
in all of Turkey.
But sheer size isn’t the only thing that makes this lake such a natural wonder: it’s
also hiding a secret within its depths.
Despite being situated over 5,000 feet above sea level, Lake Van never freezes.
The lake’s high salinity keeps the water flowing year-round, though this phenomenon
has come at the price of Lake Van’s biodiversity.
Because of these high salt levels, only one type of fish – the Pearl Mullet – is known
to live in the lake’s brackish waters.
However, according to local legend, these mackerel-sized fish aren’t the only creatures
lurking beneath the waves of Lake Van.
For over a century, locals have reported sightings of a monster that calls Lake Van its home.
Most of these claims have proven unfounded over the years, though in 1997, Ünal Kozak
managed to capture the creature on film.
In the video, a large, almost squid-like monster emerges from the water before slowly disappearing
beneath the waves.
Yet like similar “sightings” of legendary creatures, the legitimacy of Kozak’s discovery
continues to be a point of contention among scholars.
Even so, the possible existence of such a creature hasn’t deterred archaeologists
from exploring the the lake.
Just recently, in fact, an expedition led divers to the very bottom of Lake Van, though
what they found there was unlike anything they’d seen before.
On the day in question, a group of researchers assembled by Van Yüzüncü Yıl University
arrived at the lake shore to debunk another age-old myth: that the lost city of Atlantis
was actually somewhere beneath Lake Van.
Believe it or not, this idea wasn’t so farfetched.
The land surrounding Lake Van was once home to the Urartians, an ancient civilization
that flourished in Turkey during the Iron Age some 3,000 years ago.
Yet despite their centuries-long presence in the area, very few remnants from the days
of these ancient people still remain.
While conquest surely played a role in the disappearance of most Urartian structures,
some scholars believe the rising tides of Lake Van sunk these relics beneath the water.
Locating these structures would be no easy task, however, so the team opted to bring
in a little extra help.
A veteran underwater photographer, Tahsin Ceylan was pegged to lead the expedition’s
dive team in search of the lost Urartian kingdom.
With his years of diving experience, coupled with his extensive knowledge of Lake Van,
Ceylan was surely the team’s best bet for uncovering this long-forgotten piece of history.
But when it finally came time to take the plunge into the lake, even Ceylan couldn’t
help but feel a little wary over the thought of the legend of the Lake Van Monster.
Sure, he’d dived here hundreds of times before, but would this be the day he finally
came face-to-fin with the terrifying creature?
The team seemed to echo their guide’s fears, and as they dove deeper into the lake, it
became increasingly difficult to shake this unnerving thought.
After all, in a body of water as large and murky as this one, almost anything could be
lurking just a few feet below.
Once they’d reached the bottom of Lake Van, Ceylan and his team quickly set to work combing
the sands for any sign of Urartian artifacts.
Almost instantly, one of the divers spotted an enormous shadow that made everyone’s
blood run cold.
Shrouded in a veil of deep blue, what the diver saw sat in total stillness, almost as
if it were made of stone.
The divers summoned their courage and swam toward the sight, but what they found wasn’t
a monster.
It was a castle!
The towering structure was in remarkable condition, its walls and foundation intact.
It had certainly been down here for quite some time, but was this castle truly a relic
from the long-forgotten Urartian empire?
They needed to know more.
As Ceylan and his team continued exploring the ruins, one of the divers stumbled upon
a revelatory etching on one of the walls: that of a lion.
This all but confirmed the castle was Urartian, as the civilization had used symbols such
as these to identify themselves as a kingdom for centuries.
After snapping photos of the structure, the divers returned to the surface to share their
findings with the rest of the team.
The researchers were thrilled at the discovery, though upon learning of the lion symbol, things
quickly became complicated.
Despite the Urartians using this motif throughout their history, some of the scholars believed
the lion symbol looked more medieval than ancient.
If this was the case, then the castle would date back to the Middle Ages rather than the
Iron Age.
The structure itself also supported this theory, as the stones used to build it were a mix
of both Urtartian and medieval.
This led scholars to deduce the kingdoms of the Middle Ages likely repurposed materials
from these ancient ruins to build their own fortresses.
The archaeological community remained split over the true origin of the castle beneath
Lake Van.
In the meantime, historians turned their attention to a new discovery made in the U.S. — one
that might be even more extraordinary than the lost Urtarian kingdom.
Beneath the calm waters of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, divers found a massive secret, one that lay
hidden for hundreds of years.
It would excite just about any historian, they knew.
It’s the wreck of the Whydah, a massive ship built to hold 150 men and several hundred
tons of cargo.
It went missing off the coast of New England in 1717, and many assumed it was lost forever.
However, explorer Barry Clifford discovered the wreck of the Whydah in 1984, and he has
been digging up artifacts from the site ever since.
His exploits make him one of the greatest treasure hunters of all time.
Barry has long been on the hunt for a treasure that will make him a legend.
He once believed he found the remnants of the Santa Maria from Christopher Columbus’
original 1492 voyage, but tests later determined it was a different vessel.
The Whydah, however, was a monumental find.
It was the flagship of one of history’s greatest pirates: Black Sam Bellamy.
This captain was known as the ‘Robin Hood of the Sea,’ and for good reason.
For one thing, Bellamy only targeted wealthy merchants and tried to use as little violence
as possible.
His crew members received equal pay and respect, even those who were Native Americans or former
slaves.
In fact, the Whydah was originally the property of slave traders until Bellamy seized it by
force and freed the captives aboard.
Most famously, Bellamy pulled off the biggest heists in pirate history.
Historians estimate that he plundered the modern equivalent of $120 million throughout
his career.
These daring exploits made Bellamy one of the most talked-about pirates of his time.
He rose above his criminal origins to become a bona fide folk hero.
Unfortunately, Bellamy didn’t have much time to enjoy his success.
A massive storm sank the Whydah, claiming untold amounts of treasure and most of the
crew, including Bellamy himself.
Centuries later, Clifford and his colleagues have unearthed countless relics and treasures
from the wreck, and they established the Whydah Pirate Museum to share Bellamy’s story.
Even though Clifford’s team has been studying this site for decades, he still felt like
they were only scratching the surface.
Then, one diving mission in late 2016 changed everything.
The explorers located a large chunk of debris from the Whydah that had many artifacts trapped
inside of it.
They hauled it up to dry land for a closer look.
It presented a virtual treasure trove, with genuine coins and seafaring equipment jutting
through the rough surface.
But this motherlode contained one thing the scientists didn’t expect to find… human
bones.
They came across a femur just a short distance away from what appeared to be Bellamy’s
pistol.
Could it be the remains of the late great Captain himself?
Clifford knew they needed proof, so he recruited a team of forensic scientists.
They extracted DNA from the bone and compared it to that of one of Bellamy’s descendants
in the United Kingdom.
At last, the results came in…
But it was not a match.
This bone likely belonged to an anonymous crew member, but certainly not to Captain
Bellamy.
The elusive Black Sam slipped away from authorities once again.
The bad news sunk Clifford’s theory faster than the Whydah.
Nevertheless, the bone gave researchers the chance to learn more about the typical sailor
from that era.
Clifford can still take pride in his ongoing excavation of the Whydah.
After all, no other famous pirate ship has been studied so closely.
Nobody can question his accomplishments or contributions to history.
Besides, the mysteries of the Whydah are still out there in the briny deep, and Bellamy’s
final resting place may even surface someday.
All it will take is the right person to find it.